Abstract
We introduce the Stokes scintillation indices and the corresponding overall Stokes scintillations for quantitatively studying the fluctuations of both the intensity and polarization of an optical vector beam transmitting through the atmospheric turbulence. With the aid of the multiple-phase-screen method, we examine the Stokes fluctuations of a radially polarized beam in Kolmogorov turbulence numerically. The results show that the overall scintillation for the intensity distribution is always larger than the overall scintillation for the polarization-dependent Stokes parameters, which indicates that the polarization state of a vector beam is stabler than its intensity distribution in the turbulence. We interpret the results with the depolarization effect of the vector beam in turbulence. The findings in this work may be useful in free-space optical communications utilizing vector beams.
© 2023 Chinese Laser Press
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription